Mobscene
History Edward Nabler was a rookie cop, inspired by his maternal grandfather, having grown up without a father to influence him and a mother working two jobs to put food on the table for them both. At times he resented her absenteeism, compounding a sense of abandonment from the dad having skipped town shortly before he was born, but he grew to respect her work ethic and as a young teen he found ways to make money online to help ease up her schedule. While working his beat in New York, his superior saw detective potential in him, getting him onto a fast-track scholarship program that bundled in a Law Degree focused on criminal justice and crime scene investigation. The first year was a breeze and he soon found himself way ahead of his class. The case studies he came across in his second year, however, struck him again and again as unjust. Plea bargains and dodgy deals with DA's reeked of a system that was failing to protect and serve. His struggle led to a decline in his police work, with complaints and lawsuits against his actions stacking up. When faced with the prospect of losing his scholarship, he quit outright and almost drank himself into an early grave, in the process both finding and losing his husband, Seth. He suspected foul play when Seth died shortly after they divorced and began his own investigations. When his savings dried up, he put his skills to use for others to help pay his bills and fund his own search. In between the usual jealous spouses and missing persons, he noticed an unusual trend - the world was becoming obsessed with crowd-funded dirt-digging, online activists were hiring him to provide rich material for public shaming. At first he found it harmless - at best it was righteous crusades against the corrupt, at its worst it was anonymous trolls going the extra mile to own their enemies through the screen. Things took a dramatic turn since 2016. His name became known in certain circles as the go-to guy to ruin your rivals and he began to take dark-web payments for political hit-piece paydirt, as well as corporate sabotage-by-scandal. Despite the excitement of these game-changing investigations, which could reshape entire companies and bring down dirty charities, it was the smaller scale incidents that weighed heavily on his conscience. The repercussions of an entire year of public shamings seemed to come flooding in at once, long after the hungry media had long-since moved on from their part in the deed. People whose lives he'd helped ruin were beginning to commit suicide, in one case attempting a murder-suicide at his office one night. If he hadn't been so blind drunk the fall from his 2nd floor window might have killed him. The blow to the head, doctors said, could have caused unforeseen brain trauma and he would now have to have expensive tests done for the rest of his life. His office was a crime scene for a week, preventing him from earning a cent, and having to look his former colleagues in the eye and see their judgement took its toll. Descending into despair, he stared at an entire wall of connected events, all pointing to his own meddling in the lives of otherwise innocent people. One wrong word, one unwanted glance, the slightest hint of dissidence from the party line - and there he was, ready to hand over to the mob the means to end them. He laughed bitterly at the mosaic of red string and map pins, finally snapping. A powerful moment of insight struck him - nothing was learned from any of this. These victims were wasted on the mob that socially lynched them. Wasted on the world at large who could learn from their mistakes. And so he set out on a crusade of his own - he would finish off these mob victims and give them such an end as to be remembered. Their crime scenes would be headlines, and their supposed sins offered up to the horrified public for consumption and contemplation. Would they see the madness in it? Certainly they'd see it in him. However.. there are only so many people whose lives he helped ruin, and if the media don't deliver his message, he may have to go directly after the ones who hired him all these years. Criminal Record Ed has a history of trespassing offences from overstepping the mark in his line of work. He has also been charged with identity theft a few times but the accusations never held up in court. Powers and Abilities *'Uncanny' Knack ~ 'Ed can see connections between things, making what would appear to most people as wild leaps of association. It was what got him scouted for promotion in the NYPD, but it was also the cause of his descent into madness. Unknown to him, this is a subtle mutation handed down from his father. There are times when this has come in handy for his own physical safety, but he has never applied it in that direction too often. Seeing the telegraphs and tells of another human body who means you harm is a stressful ordeal, and a curse to walk around with on a daily basis. Every micro-aggression of a passer-by could set him off. He drinks to dull these senses, rendering them more introverted and cerebral. *'Skills ~ As a private detective with police training and some degree of crime scene investigation, he knows a trick or two. Breaking & entering are second nature to him, as is covering his tracks when leaving the scene. He has contacts at several alphabet agencies who he has courted into giving him information for his job, often for a bribe but occasionally for his silence about their petty sins. He's familiar with side-arms, self defence equipment and detention techniques. Finally, he can see guilt and shame on a face at twenty paces. Weaknesses All normal human weaknesses. Alcoholism. Poker - When he plays in person his senses reign supreme, but playing online is where it's actually a challenge. Cursed senses - when he can't drink to dull them, he sees connections and causality in everything. Chains of events run wild with his imagination to a crippling degree - he might find himself staring at a pigeon with a wounded wing, appalled at how many times it has caused a road traffic accident and how many ways it still could, if he introduced just the right incentive. Category:Characters